christmas in berlin
Pretty frequently I like to just kind of take off walking through Berlin and see where I end up. I also like to try walking from one area of the city that I know to another, to get an idea of how everything connects, see what's in between. So today I decided to take a very roundabout route from Nollendorfplatz, which is fairly close to my neighborhood, to Unter den Linden to check out the Christmas market on the Opernpalais. (I was going to make you a nice MS Paint map, but I can't really fit it all easily. Here's this instead. It's pretty much all there.)
I walked through Wittenbergplatz but didn't go into Kaufhaus des Westens ("Department Store of the West"). Last week when I went in, I had my camera with me, and I temporarily waived my anti-tourism policy to take this picture (everybody else was doing it anyway):
I love this guy. He just sat there composedly like that while millions of people took his picture, and took pictures of their friends sitting beside him. And besides, I'm willing to believe that facial hair is real.
Incidentally, one of the other Americans I was with in Hamburg was saying that Berlin is experiencing a serious shortage of Santas this holiday season, and that you can collect some pretty good wages if you get yourself a red suit and register with a Santa-placing agency. At least, I think that's how it works. Maybe I should find out, try my luck breaking down some gender barriers in the business...
Anyway, I headed from Wittenbergplatz over to the Kudamm. There's a gigantic Christmas market at the Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church), but I just walked through cause I'd seen it the other day too. Here's a picture I took there right before my batteries ran out:
Not a great pic, but I didn't get another chance to try capturing the actual market because of said battery failure. The only thing of interest to you here might be the little wooden hut, which is pretty much what Christmas markets are (this is one of many huts, that is)--and maybe the elderly lady apparently eating toothpaste.
From the Kudamm I walked through Budapeststrasse and Stülerstrasse, which aren't terribly interesting in and of themselves, and I wouldn't mention them now except that today the area was crawling with Polizei. Seriously, I think half of Berlin's police force was out lining those streets, standing in groups drinking coffee, sitting and reading in cars and vans. They had tanks. Small ones, but tanks. Two of them. I asked an officer what was going on, and he said an Israeli minister is here for a visit. He's probably staying in one of several luxury hotels in that area. I didn't have my camera along today, so I can't show you what it looked like...but they probably wouldn't have let me take a picture anyway.
So then I went up Hofjägerallee to the Siegessäule and down the Straße des 17. Juni (which is way longer than it looks on the map) to Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). There's a giant Christmas tree on Pariser Platz, right in front of the Gate, but I was more impressed by the one we saw in Hamburg. It was so big I couldn't take a picture of it. Huge.
As I walked down Unter den Linden, the lights in the trees came on. One of my teachers at school thinks it's ridiculous the way they outlined every branch with a string of white lights. It does kind of look like a bunch of lit-up dead trees. I guess the guy who paid for the lights decorating a few of the major streets in Berlin this Christmas made his fortune in port-a-pottys. Not that that has anything to do with whether my teacher likes the decorations at all...
The market on the Opernpalais was a good one. I discovered Feuerzangenbowle, which I find even tastier than Glühwein, plus it's more fun to say. It's hot wine and rum and orange and spices and sugar. So perfect for strolling through the market when it's dark and the city's lit up, and it's just cold enough that I appreciate the warm mug in my hands. Christmas markets smell soooo good. Gebrannte Mandeln (roasted almonds, but I think it sounds more delicious in German) and crêpes and wurst, and at the Opernpalais market there are dozens of Christmas trees (of normal size) lit up and smelling nice... Have I mentioned that I love how Germany does Christmas? I do miss snow, but I'm certainly not complaining about the weather we've been having. Nice for walking around the city.
Oh, and the Christmas carols? Pretty much the standard ones you'd hear in the US, plus a couple German ones (which I happily recognized from Christmas parties with the German department at Calvin)--and "Last Christmas." I hear it EVERYwhere. Apparently the Germans really love it. I don't know why I find that so funny.
And finally I walked up Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz to catch the bus home. The End.
I walked through Wittenbergplatz but didn't go into Kaufhaus des Westens ("Department Store of the West"). Last week when I went in, I had my camera with me, and I temporarily waived my anti-tourism policy to take this picture (everybody else was doing it anyway):
I love this guy. He just sat there composedly like that while millions of people took his picture, and took pictures of their friends sitting beside him. And besides, I'm willing to believe that facial hair is real.Incidentally, one of the other Americans I was with in Hamburg was saying that Berlin is experiencing a serious shortage of Santas this holiday season, and that you can collect some pretty good wages if you get yourself a red suit and register with a Santa-placing agency. At least, I think that's how it works. Maybe I should find out, try my luck breaking down some gender barriers in the business...
Anyway, I headed from Wittenbergplatz over to the Kudamm. There's a gigantic Christmas market at the Gedächtniskirche (Memorial Church), but I just walked through cause I'd seen it the other day too. Here's a picture I took there right before my batteries ran out:
Not a great pic, but I didn't get another chance to try capturing the actual market because of said battery failure. The only thing of interest to you here might be the little wooden hut, which is pretty much what Christmas markets are (this is one of many huts, that is)--and maybe the elderly lady apparently eating toothpaste.From the Kudamm I walked through Budapeststrasse and Stülerstrasse, which aren't terribly interesting in and of themselves, and I wouldn't mention them now except that today the area was crawling with Polizei. Seriously, I think half of Berlin's police force was out lining those streets, standing in groups drinking coffee, sitting and reading in cars and vans. They had tanks. Small ones, but tanks. Two of them. I asked an officer what was going on, and he said an Israeli minister is here for a visit. He's probably staying in one of several luxury hotels in that area. I didn't have my camera along today, so I can't show you what it looked like...but they probably wouldn't have let me take a picture anyway.
So then I went up Hofjägerallee to the Siegessäule and down the Straße des 17. Juni (which is way longer than it looks on the map) to Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). There's a giant Christmas tree on Pariser Platz, right in front of the Gate, but I was more impressed by the one we saw in Hamburg. It was so big I couldn't take a picture of it. Huge.
As I walked down Unter den Linden, the lights in the trees came on. One of my teachers at school thinks it's ridiculous the way they outlined every branch with a string of white lights. It does kind of look like a bunch of lit-up dead trees. I guess the guy who paid for the lights decorating a few of the major streets in Berlin this Christmas made his fortune in port-a-pottys. Not that that has anything to do with whether my teacher likes the decorations at all...
The market on the Opernpalais was a good one. I discovered Feuerzangenbowle, which I find even tastier than Glühwein, plus it's more fun to say. It's hot wine and rum and orange and spices and sugar. So perfect for strolling through the market when it's dark and the city's lit up, and it's just cold enough that I appreciate the warm mug in my hands. Christmas markets smell soooo good. Gebrannte Mandeln (roasted almonds, but I think it sounds more delicious in German) and crêpes and wurst, and at the Opernpalais market there are dozens of Christmas trees (of normal size) lit up and smelling nice... Have I mentioned that I love how Germany does Christmas? I do miss snow, but I'm certainly not complaining about the weather we've been having. Nice for walking around the city.
Oh, and the Christmas carols? Pretty much the standard ones you'd hear in the US, plus a couple German ones (which I happily recognized from Christmas parties with the German department at Calvin)--and "Last Christmas." I hear it EVERYwhere. Apparently the Germans really love it. I don't know why I find that so funny.
And finally I walked up Unter den Linden to Alexanderplatz to catch the bus home. The End.
Labels: Christmas
Mache dir keine Sorgen. Hier in GR gibt es auch keinen Schnee. Und Weihnachten wirklich ist so schön in Deutschland. Ich vermisse es!
Posted by
Anonym |
1:54 AM